I say the following as both tongue-in-cheek and as fact: I have a masters degree in theology, so trust me, I can smell religion a mile away when it’s downwind. When people threaten violence against those that disagree with them, there is always a religious component. It may be a traditional theocentric religion, or it may be a secular movement that has displaced conventional religion: radical veganism, gun worship, eco-“terrorism,” Christianity through most of its 2000 years, etc.

They cannot stand that someone doesn’t think like them. The solution is to be rid of this “other.” This is a subset of tribalism on steroids. It’s built into our psycho-DNA unless we are trained out of it.

Threats of violence never come (to the best of my observations) from those that just want to discuss matters and, generally, have a “Live and let live,” philosophy. Agnostics, atheists, paleovores and omnivores, hunters and target shooters who don’t feel the need to own a bazooka.

As has been said, “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
US physicist (1933 – )

Ferrum Itzal

It’s interesting that you lump gun owners that do want to own a bazooka in with terrorists and others that do not have a ‘live and let live’ philosophy.

Having said that, I’m all for folks documenting these threats and posting the contact info for the threat-makers.

Shades

That quote is pants-on-head retarded. Evil people do evil things. You can’t be a good person and do evil things. You can do a few light bad things I suppose, but there are no good pedophiles, no saintly rapists.

Furthermore, Communism is definitionaly atheistic, and resulted in about 100,000,000 murdered people in the 20th century. Atheists have thus personally killed or caused to be killed far more people in the last hundred years than Christianity’s entire history, but you recommend atheism as some magic bullet for peace?

paulvzo

Your stupidity/and or lack of reading comprehension is showing.

Communism, the capital C kind, is/was a secular religion. Just what I was talking about.

Thank you for proving my point.

Shades

If you’re defining Communism as a religion, please, contact you high school immediately to let them know how badly they failed you, then burn your certificate. Your college degree you can keep for toilet paper.

paulvzo

Open your narrow mind as to what constitutes a religion, Shades. If god or goddess worship is necessary, which is what I think I’m hearing, Buddhism doesn’t count as a religion.

Two major mindsets identify a religion, secular or theocentric:

1. Dogma and orthodoxy; beliefs often contradicting observable facts. No room for differing beliefs, that is why the protesters of this convention are religious. “You VEEL hate men and their rights!”
2. Purity; how well do you hue the party line? As in Communist Party or Church.

Unlike yourself, I had a 1960’s mandatory Communism vs. Capitalism class, so I’m grounded, dude. (And a lot of what they warned us about has come true here since 9/11.) And my “certificate” is an actual masters degree from a respected, accredited institution.

And your sources are ???????

Jack H.

If you define a religion as any movement which has endorsed violence as you did in your opening statement.
then yes by your definition all violence is caused by religion.

I could for example say that a bigot is a person who feels the need to lump large groups of diverse people into easy managed categories in order to fit their preconceived notions.
by that definition you sir are a bigot.

Sorry, I’m not interested in playing the Left’s favorite game, “Let Me Redefine Words Until I’m Right”. Unlike yourself, I have a real Masters, in Mechanical Engineering (don’t blame me for the capitalization, I had to sign a contract promising I’d do it that way for life when they handed me the diploma), so don’t expect me to get the vapors because some university gave you a degree in Staying Alive and Paying Tuition for all those years.

paulvzo

I do respect your degree. A lot.

But just because a joule is a joule, it doesn’t mean religions fall into such easily quantifiable, objective definitions.

Alex

a mechanical engineer has no room to stand when calling something a religion, unless they double as a theologist (or similar profession) in my book. you stick to building transportation, and we’ll let the guy who went to school to study religions talk about religions k? prevent a lot of confusion. also, communism being atheist is a byproduct of making sure there’s no one higher than the government, so shove it.

MC

I’m not religious, but it is annoying when religion gets blamed for everything bad that happens in the world.

Religion is not responsible for millions being killed, neither is atheism. It’s true that some political figures might have used religion as justification for committing some atrocity, but that doesn’t make religion at fault.

Those political figures were simply playing to the crowd. They still do the same shit today, but because they have a less religious population, they come up with other justifications, involving freedom, weapons of mass destruction, the environment, protecting the children from guns, or whatever else they feel will play to the crowd.

Blame the political figures, not what they used to justify their acts, cause they’ll always come up with something, and focusing on the something as opposed to the power those political figures wield, will always lead to history repeating itself.

Amen. (Pun intended. But seriously, I fully second your opinion as expressed in your comment.)
(sorry, posted first under wrong identity)

dolf

I think it is a common injustice to always refer to “religion” in cases like this. It’s a matter of fanaticism, and true, religious people are often fanatical. But what make people and movements dangerous is not that their religiosity, but their fanaticism.
There’s a big correlation between religion and fanaticism, but there does not exist any logical or inherent link between the two in any way.
So let’s call a spade a spade and a rake a rake. That they often co-exist does not mean that they are the same nor even that they naturally belong together.

paulvzo

Fair enough. Yes, fanaticism is the sometimes common denominator. Yes, there are links, as I explained above: dogma and purity. And when secular movements have those canons, I choose to call them religions.

YMMV.

Spaniard

What about “agnostic mystic”?

Tyler

While I support doxxing/reporting anyone who makes death threats against you, I really don’t think there’s a chance there will be any shooting. Reasons:

1. Most people reach words long before they reach action. Crazies exist, yeah, but that’s an everpresent hazard.
2. Killing is a huge step to take even for people trained, culturally endorsed, and outright ordered to. Talking about soldiers here. The few I know, they don’t take it lightly. Valor and courage are not the primary traits I associate with members of the radfem brigade.
3. It’s an absurdly safe bet that several (many?) members of the convention itself will be armed. The majority of gun owners are male, and we’re talking about a segment of the male population that is disillusioned with society, willing to take action (since they’re at the convention), and used to being attacked (even if usually by words or laws). Attacking this convention would be suicide. Note: I’m assuming there’s no legal situation barring concealed firearms. I do not know.

Yes. Interesting, no, that we haven’t heard news of the DHS or FBI rounding up those who communicated the threats and charging them withe “terrorism?” You can damned sure be certain that if the threats had been communicated against attendees of a feminists/women’s rights convention that there would by now be 24/7 coverage by the Big Three newstainmentaganda channels of SWAT teams kicking down doors and rounding up suspects. Needless to say, gubbiment has tipped its hand and revealed its agenda by foregoing such response.

BTW, I wouldn’t count on Detroit’s corrupt and inept Keystone Kops to deliver any protection worthy of the concept if TSHTF. I’m sure organization is being forced to subsidize them, but I wouldn’t rely on them.

sarah

Well, the hotel or an attendee would have to report the threats before they can begin to investigate.

That has not happened yet.

bruce wyse

The above argument about the semantics of the word “religion” is a bit silly but I understand it. How I resolve it is to look at them all as IDEOLOGIES. Religion is just a particular subset of Ideologies having to do with Mans relation to God (or more generally the universe) So there, now marxism is an ideology so is feminism and Christianity and Islam and they have all been used by the power hungry to justify massive evil. Agreed?

paulvzo

In the brief, yes. But ideologies are beliefs, often against logic and observation, just like religions. And both have those self-definitions of dogma and purity.

As an employee of a globally known chain, I can tell you that the staff has been all but threatened into playing dumb with the press. We have a situation like that right now over a truly trivial issue which the press has decided to investigate.